Hindutva activist Monu Manesar, accused in the 2023 murders of two Muslim men by cow vigilantes in Haryana, was released from Bharatpur Central Jail on Saturday evening after the Rajasthan High Court granted him bail and was welcomed by supporters with garlands and drum beats as he travelled to his native village in Gurugram wearing a bulletproof jacket.
Twenty-five-year-old Nasir and 35-year-old Junaid had gone missing on February 15, 2023, and a day later their charred bodies were found at Loharu in Haryana’s Bhiwani district.
They were allegedly killed by cow vigilantes who suspected them of carrying cattle illegally. However, according to police, when the vigilantes did not find any cattle, they allegedly assaulted the two men and set them on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence.
A Bench of the Rajasthan High Court led by Justice Anil Kumar Upman granted bail to Monu Manesar on March 5, noting that he had been in custody for more than two years and that none of the 74 prosecution witnesses had been examined during this period.
This was Manesar’s second bail plea before the High Court in the case registered at Gopalgarh Police Station under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to abduction, abduction to cause grievous hurt, and wrongful confinement, among other charges.
Earlier, the High Court had rejected the bail pleas of Manesar and co-accused Anil Kumar in January last year. Kumar later approached the Supreme Court of India, which granted him bail on January 28 this year.
During the hearing, Manesar’s lawyers, including Ashvin Garg, argued that he had been falsely implicated and that he stood on a “better footing” than co-accused Anil Kumar, who they described as the main accused while Manesar was only alleged to be a conspirator. They also said that although three criminal cases had previously been registered against him, he had been acquitted in two and granted bail in the third.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
